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How to identify quality xylitol toothpaste products.Xylitol toothpaste can help in the fight against tooth decay.Toothpaste formulated with xylitol can play a role in helping a person achieve their needed daily dosing. As we discuss below however, it probably doesn't provide as great an exposure as other types of products. This assumption is confirmed by the work of Lif Holgerson (2006) who compared xylitol levels in the saliva and dental plaque of subjects following their use of xylitol-sweetened chewing gum, tablets, candy, mouth rinse, and toothpaste. This study found that toothpaste produced the lowest oral exposure. However, to the defense of the use of xylitol toothpaste, Jannesson (2002) found that over a six month time frame using a toothpaste that contained 10% xylitol did reduce the levels of cavity-forming bacteria in test subjects' saliva and dental plaque. Our search for product information.We performed a web search so to identify some of the different brands of toothpaste that claim to have a xylitol content. The stated amount on these products ranged from a high of 36% (Squiggle's Enamel Saver Toothpaste) down to 10%. There were also a number of products that did not document a specific content. In regards to toothpaste labeling, content percentages are calculated on a "by weight" basis. Using just a little math it's easy to calculate that a four-ounce tube of toothpaste that has a 10% concentration will contain about .4 ounces of xylitol. This is on the order of 11 grams. Of course the question isn't how much xylitol is in the toothpaste tube but rather how much dosing you get with each brushing. This answer to this isn't quite so easy to come up with, primarily because the amount of toothpaste each person uses will vary. With fluoride toothpaste, the dental community has, for years, suggested that a pea-sized dab of toothpaste is sufficient for each brushing (much less than the typical manufacturer's advertising seems to show being applied). Depending on what your impression is regarding the size of a pea, this amount might run on the order of .4 to maybe .8 grams of toothpaste. For the sake of argument let's consider the larger amount. If a person chooses to use the toothpaste that has the highest percentage of xylitol we have found (36%), then with each brushing a person might be receive a xylitol dosing on the order of .3 grams. That's not a lot. You're going to need other sources in order to meet your optimal daily xylitol requirement. But as mentioned above, just using xylitol toothpaste alone seems to provide some benefit. The toothpaste products we found.Let us get this rant off our chest first.We find it somewhat insulting that some companies make a xylitol claim for their toothpaste but do not back it up by stating a percent concentration. Many times this lack of documentation is related to the fact that the product contains such a small amount of xylitol that the company doesn't want a consumer to be able to make an easy comparison with other products. Companies that clearly state their toothpaste's xylitol content should be rewarded by way of consumers purchasing these products. Any company that is seriously concerned about the well being of their customers knows that a customer needs adequate information about the products they buy, so they can make an informed decision regarding their use. Here's a listing of toothpaste products that we found available (via a web search).
We display this information here simply to demonstrate the different levels of xylitol content that we found being offered. This list is not all-inclusive. There very well may be other products on the market that do have high concentrations of xylitol but either we did not find them or could not document their exact xylitol content.
How to estimate the relative xylitol content of toothpastes.During our research we took the time to compare the stated xylitol content of each toothpaste with its list of ingredients. As you probably know, items found in an ingredient list are stated in decreasing order. This suggests that those toothpastes with comparatively higher xylitol content will be those where xylitol is listed closer to the beginning of the list. This is exactly what we found. The majority of the higher concentration products (25 to 36%) showed xylitol (or water and then xylitol) at the head of their ingredient list.
In comparison, some of the lower stated concentration toothpastes (10%) had xylitol listed further down the line. 
This last example illustrates what might be considered to be a low quality product. Imagine a toothpaste product that states it has xylitol in it, yet its packaging contains no numeric documentation of this fact. Then, when you look at the ingredient list, you see something like the following. 
Notice that xylitol is way down in the list and, even worse, is preceded by another sweetener (sorbitol). As the pages of our site discuss, the usual reason sorbitol is used in a product, instead of just 100% xylitol, is related to the fact that it is a cheaper compound. The scenario we describe here would suggest that this manufacturer is not serious about making a quality xylitol product. << Home: Xylitol products review. 
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